Picture Courtesy: India Today
In the much talked about Presidential Polls of 2017, The BJP led NDA had nominated the Governor of Bihar Ram Nath Kovind as its choice to replace Pranab Mukherjee. Though the numbers are in favour of the ruling alliance, the opposition parties led by the Congress has fielded former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, daughter of the late Jagjivan Ram as its candidate. The face- off has thus led to a fight between the two Dalit Leaders.
Source: Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR)
In this backdrop, the Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR) compiled data across the country. And looks at the various arithmetics that come into play during voting the Presidential polls. They are as follows:
Votes of MPs/MLAs Who Have Declared Criminal Cases
MPs/ MLAs with Criminal Cases: Out of the 4852 MPs/MLAs analysed, 1581(33%) members have declared criminal cases against themselves in a self-sworn affidavit filed with the ECI before their most recent elections. 184 (34 per cent) out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 44(19 per cent) out of 231 Rajya Sabha MPs and 1353(33%) out of 4078 MLAs (all state assemblies / UTs) analysed have declared criminal cases against themselves.
MPs/ MLAs with Serious Criminal Cases:
According to the ADR, Out of the 4852 MPs/MLAs analysed, 993(20%) members have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in a self-sworn affidavit filed with the ECI before their most recent elections. 117 (22%) out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 16(7%) out of 231 Rajya Sabha MPs and 860(21%) out of 4078 MLAs (all state assemblies / UTs) analysed have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Votes by MPs/MLAs who have declared criminal cases: Based on the number of votes that MPs / MLAs who have declared criminal cases, are entitled to cast, a total of 367393 votes (34%) out of 1091472 votes analysed are of MPs/MLAs who have declared criminal cases against themselves.
As the Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR) compiled data on votes of MPs/MLAs Based on financial details:
Crorepati MPs/MLAs: 3460 (71%) out of 4852 MPs/ MLAs analysed are crorepatis as per their self-sworn affidavits submitted to the ECI at the time of nomination for contesting elections. 445(82%) out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 194 (84%) out of 231 Rajya Sabha MPs, 2721(68%) out of 4078 MLAs from all State / UT assemblies are crorepatis.
Votes by crorepati MPs/MLAs: Based on the number of votes these crorepatis MPs/MLAs are entitled to cast, a total of 75% or 818703 out of 1091472 votes analysed are of MPs/MLAs who are crorepatis. Amongst state assemblies, Karnataka has the maximum number of votes by crorepati MPs/MLAs with 30400(93%) out of 32680 votes analysed.
Source: Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR)
Women Representation
- Out of the total 4852 MPs/MLAs who are entitled to vote in the upcoming Presidential Elections, only 451(9%) are women.
- Based on the number of votes the MPs/MLAs are entitled to vote, 109708 (10%) out of 1091472 are women votes.
- Among MPs, Lok Sabha has 46020 (12%) votes out of 384444 from 65 women MPs and Rajya Sabha has 16284(10%) out of 163548 votes analysed from 23 women MPs.
- All State / UT assemblies combined have 51383(9%) votes out of 543480 votes from 363 women MLAs.
- Among State assemblies, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum amount of women votes with 8320 votes out of 83616(40 out of 402 MLAs) followed by West Bengal with 6191 votes out of 44243 (41 out of 293 MLAs) and Madhya Pradesh with 4192 votes out of 30130(32 out of 230 MLAs).
Source: Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR)
